Point of View

Wit is a play and each character speaks lines from a script in the first person. In this particular play, Vivian – the central character - acts as the narrator and guide through the tale, outside of the scenes where she interacts with other characters. With this device, the audience is privy to Vivian’s thoughts and emotions that would not be apparent if she were limited to speaking with the other characters.

Setting

The play takes place in the present at the University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Language and Meaning

Though this is a modern play, Vivian Bearing, a professor of Donne’s Holy Sonnets from the seventeenth century, uses heightened language as a matter of course. Her vocabulary is large and with her insistence on looking up medical terms, it keeps expanding. She uses words indicative of thought and precision. This contrasts with the...